Entry № 6782 · Latin origin

Mercy Mercy — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MER-see /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Latin
Meaning
"Compassion, forgiveness"
Syllables
2
First recorded
17th c. (English Puritan)

A name that means "compassion, forgiveness".

Mercy comes from the Latin merces, meaning "reward" or "pity." English Puritans adopted Mercy as a virtue name in the 17th century alongside Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Mercy is rising in the U.S.

Mercy. The Puritan virtue.

The name in its native script.

Mercy
Transliteration
Mercy
Pronunciation
/ ˈmɜːr.si /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Mercy stands.

Mercy does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Mercys before her.

Real people
Mercy Otis Warren
American Revolutionary-era writer.
1728 – 1814
In fiction
Mercy
Character in The Pilgrim's Progress.
1678 work

Names connected to Mercy.

The number behind Mercy.

1

The Leader

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Mercy reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.